Every Sunday there is a local general swap meet/flea market, and I debated going since the play money was almost gone. Had to add gas to get there, and quickly spent the money I did have way before getting halfway through the place. Get to the car and go home, or keep looking? Glad I keep on shopping, found two items I actually need, got the cards from both vendors and will pay during the week or next Sunday, hopefully both items are still unsold by two this afternoon. Glad I went, had a good time, and enjoyed the ride. Bob
The Pate swap meet dried up 4 years ago. I take money but cant find anything and I am looking for many ol parts
No cool swap meets near me. Everything is just home decor junk. I envy they guys that go to their weekly local meets and come back with all kinds of cool parts and machine shop items.
Speaking of swaps, a bit of a heads up for AZ folk. http://paacaz.com/wls_overview.html Overview Of The PAAC 2024 Watson Lake Show Our 49th Annual Watson Lake Show, August 3rd.-4th., 2024 Copyright Prescott Antique Auto Club For the 49th year the Prescott Antique Auto Club (PAAC) will be putting on its Watson Lake Car Show, Swap meet and Old Engine fire up. This event is being held at Watson Lake Park in beautiful Prescott Arizona, on state highway 89 just north of the city.
Paid for my camping spot at Iola, but someone wanted my motor home worse than I did. That left me with a paid for camping spot and scooter rental, but no motor home to sleep in, so I did the obvious thing: Took the money I got for the old motor home, doubled it, and bought a new one. Now I have a new motor home, campsite, and scooter for Iola in July, but no money for parts.
Bob. I remember the 1933 Willlys grill that you found at the "Elephant Trunk " that you didn't have enough cash to buy it. You bought it later in the week from the seller, and I bought it from you.
That was one of the better finds at the Trunk! I looked at it and couldn't believe, and wasn't totally sure what I was looking at. It's always a mystery how things get shuffled around, it was the only automotive item the vendor had.
I remember going to Pate in the 70's with a load of parts, just enough gas to get there from McGregor. TX and enough cash to pay for the space and having to sell enough parts to be able to buy parts. I usually left with a different load of parts and a few bucks in my pocket.
I was shopping last week at a swap meet putting small parts in a canvas bag in my cart. When I got to the end of the row I found the bag had fallen over and the parts were all gone. Boy was I pis..... at my self.
Has anyone tried the non-automotive swap meets? I used to go to the swap meet at the local junior college in San Pedro occasionally and I always found something, car parts, tools, cheap. Carburetors, wheels, usually clean out the garage stuff, but sometimes.....
YES! Having an eye for all things of value and a good knowledge of history allows you to always come home with a treasure. Bob
My small collection after two back to back swaps this spring, mostly garage decor and a few electrical bits for my A Bone...
The last 3 weekends had very good sized swap meets with many buyers eager to be at them. My buildings are so full it will take hours to move stuff if I need something from the back. Did I attend any of the swaps and sell stuff to clean out some space?? Of course not. Spent every weekend hauling home trailer loads of new treasures. Just got a call today from someone who has bought stuff from me over 20 years. Come and clean out my buildings…yeah, this weekend is busy now.
I go to these (or "boot sales" over here), and have sometimes found folks cleaning out their parent's shed, and come home with odd car or motorcycle parts, or , better, machine tools, or old hand tools. These are worth checking out for AOS (Any Old Shit).
yes, when you do find auto stuff it is way cheaper because they are just garage cleaning usually. I got a double snorkel mopar air cleaner for free years ago. just happen to be on a back road as the person was putting it out for the garbage man. stopped and asked him if it was ok if i took it and he said sure, he was glad i wanted it before the garbage truck got there. He just brought some type of new toy, riding lawn mower i think he said and was getting rid of the junk in the corner to make room for it. i got triple figures for it on ebay. 2 guys were fighting over it. i researched the guy that brought it from me and the week earlier he brought a mopar but it had a chrome unstock air cleaner on it, so it was perfect timing. i wish i would have took the other stuff too but off the top of my head i didn't recognize the stuff and i was in a hurry seeing i was actually on my mail route delivering papers that day and was running late already. How do you explain to the other paper people that you were late bundle dropping their papers because you were picking thru someone's garbage pile even though they came out of the plant late that day.? like i said prices can be cheaper at a non car flea market type event but it can work the same way at a swap meet event to for off topic stuff. my dad walked out of iola car show and swap meet years ago with an old double barrel shot gun way cheaper than a gun show would have wanted for it.
The Jalopy Journal
